FlickFusion is now offering AI-driven image enhancement and video creation services for auto dealerships, manufacturers and third-party vehicle marketplaces. FlickFusion’s video marketing platform is built on an AI engine that automates and streamlines several time-consuming aspects of the vehicle merchandising process.
“While other companies use AI add-on tools to enhance images, AI is not the foundation of their platform,” said Tim James, COO of FlickFusion. “Nucleus was built on an AI engine designed to produce photos and videos that automatically ensure OEM compliance and quality control standards. Benefits include drastically lower costs associated with manual editing processes, improved image and video quality, and a better user experience.”
In recent years, as consumers complete more of the vehicle purchasing process online, the importance of photo and video quality has taken center stage. Auto dealers are known for being meticulous when merchandising vehicles on their lots, with sparkling clean vehicles lined up in neat rows, all facing the same direction.
Dealers, manufacturers and third-party marketplaces want to apply the same on-lot quality control standards to their online vehicle merchandising efforts; however, photo and video quality can vary drastically according to who is taking the photos, camera quality and other factors such as weather.
Until now, attempts to control quality have been made at the point of capture with imagery and compliance guidelines for lot services providers, photographers and videographers. Now, with the power of FlickFusion’s AI platform, the quality of the imagery is no longer solely decided at the point of capture.
“AI automatically scans hundreds and thousands of images in near real time. It can flag, feature identify, quality score, and fix thousands of potential image violations in seconds, which traditionally takes weeks or even months with a manual QC process,” said Taylor Nelson, VP strategy at FlickFusion.
FlickFusion’s AI platform corrects deficiencies that occur at the point of capture on the back end, instantly transforming an assortment of potentially non-compliant, hodge-podge photos into stunning online vehicle showrooms with the same visual appeal as a dealership’s lot.
Merchandising processes that are automated by FlickFusion’s AI include the following:
Backgrounding. Inventory photos taken on lots often have distracting backgrounds due to billboards, traffic or power lines. FlickFusion’s AI can remove unwanted features, knock out a busy background and replace it with a neutral background and logo, or replace it with another image such as a dealership’s storefront.
Image recognition and sequencing. FlickFusion’s AI can sort and process hundreds and thousands of images, from any source. It instantly scans and recognizes items such as image flaws, key vehicle features, vehicle direction, vehicle condition, vehicle cleanliness, visible warning lights, and many additional potential merchandising violations. FlickFusion’s AI selects only the highest-quality photos and places them in the best logical merchandising sequence for auto dealers, manufacturers or third-party marketplaces. In addition, AI ensures that the first photo featured in an image carousel or on a search results page (SRP) is always facing a certain direction, just like vehicles on the lot.
Image upscaling and normalization. FlickFusion’s AI instantly re-sizes and crops photos so that vehicles in every image appear to be a uniform size. AI can improve photo resolution, brighten or dim lighting in photos for consistency, and correct for sunspots, glares and other minor flaws.
Video and 360 creation. FlickFusion’s AI takes static photos and instantly turns them into interactive 360-degree videos. AI can also identify desired vehicle features and insert them as “hot spots” that car shoppers can click on to learn more about key vehicle features. This eliminates the need for a time-consuming manual video production and editing process.
To learn more about how FlickFusion’s AI image enhancement capabilities and API, visit https://double4.ai/
